Hamas warns Israel of consequences after new airstrikes

A high-ranking official from the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has warned Israel against escalating tensions in the Gaza Strip, saying Tel Aviv will face the consequences. 

Israeli aircraft launched airstrikes on Khan Yunis and other areas in the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday, hours after dozens of Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli troops in the coastal enclave.

Medical officials and locals said a small cabin was hit in southern Gaza, killing a 27-year-old civilian and wounding two others. 

“The consequences of killing innocent people in Gaza and Israel’s escalating tensions with the Hamas resistance movement in the coastal enclave will have a blowback effect on the Zionist regime itself,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Saturday.  

“The blood of our nation is very valuable to us and we will not allow anyone to waste it,” he added. 

The Israeli military claimed that the Friday air raids were launched in response to the firing of 10 rockets into the occupied Palestinian territories from Gaza.

Earlier in the day, Israeli forces opened fire on several Palestinian fisherman in the northern part of the strip, shortly after injuring dozens of protesters during a fresh round of the March of Return demonstrations.

A 27-year-old who was seriously wounded in the Friday’s airstrikes succumbed to his injuries in hospital on Saturday.  

The Israeli military frequently bombs Gaza, with civilians being the main target of such attacks.

Israel has also launched several wars on the Palestinian coastal enclave, the last of which began in early July 2014. The military aggression, which ended on August 26, 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians. Over 11,100 others were also wounded in the war.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

Palestinians in Gaza have been holding weekly rallies as part of the Great March of Return since March 30, 2018, calling for an end to the crippling 11-year-long Israeli blockade.